20, 23 and 27 September 2007

In the Steps of Jack Leigh

Chapter 3: Grey Lynn, Western Springs

page 3

Looks like black is the new black just here.

Right next door, the somewhat austere, almost spartan, white of number 19 is set off by these amazingly alive children looking out at us through their frames from a photographer's studio.

St Columba's Church, whose grassy open area is mentioned by Jack as a lunchtime haven for local workers, is now more intensely landscaped.

The old "character-filled" Auckland Laundry is now a busy refurbished set of offices, returning it's new owners, if the real estate blurb is to be believed, a little over a million dollars a year in rent.

Next door is a somewhat more dilapidated building, also responding to a developer's efforts to give it new life.

Back on our side of the road, more black.

A mannequin poses casually, back towards passers by, in a window

and across the road, the distinctive white architecture of the Mormon Church

welcomes all expressions of interest.

Standing out in the midst of this stark austerity is a small dairy.

I wonder how Kate Millington might render this in one of her ceramic designs. It's got to be just about every suburban dairy I've ever seen concentrated in one intense burst of flavour.

We're back into houses on our side of the road, and a touch of the twenties brings us closer to the present.

Not for long. There's more lace to be had.

and more fun with barge boards.

and up ahead a little is the Bullock Track.